How does an Elemental Shaman slip into a good RBG team?

Everywhere I go (PvP realms , quakenet etc) I see people asking for Boomkins , Mages or Locks. I know those specs are important but as a MS Ele Shaman i've yet to find anyone who'd want me. I'm sitting at 1690 CR ( losing more games than winning) with 2,1k exp in both arenas and RBGs (last year on horde , now i'm alliance). I thought having that experience will actually make people be impressed but it seems no one cares about experience , only CR.

But since no decent team wants me , I end up on low CR thus I can't find good high rated teams. Like a vicious circle. Is there any hope, or have I deluded myself into thinking Elemental is actually asked for in RBGs? I'm seeing these few high rated Elementals but I never see anyone asking for my spec. Maybe they have close friends , who knows , but do i actually need to slip my way into different social circles just to be able to play this part of the game?

I've got the same problem on my ele shammy - 2.6 arena exp 1.7 cr, noone wants me in. Rbgs are all about fotm lock/boomkin/mage, especially at these low ratings. It's so frustrating when you have to play with bad players that have to fotm their way to 1700...

The best solution I've found so far was to offspec resto, even if it's boring as shit to play it nowadays.

I have been seeing more ele shamans lately, they are never high on damage done but they bring some very important things to RBG groups that perhaps you should point out to people when you try to get into groups.

1.) The best knockback. The ele knockback is brutal. You can do some pretty cool things to guarantee kills. A good one that has gotten me a few times is to force a DK to AMS and then have the ele push in while your DK hangs back. Position yourself in between their team and their DK and knock him back, then your DK grips him even further away. It is almost always a guaranteed kill and a good launching point for disarray on their team. Also works well with less mobile healers.
2.) Totems have great utility. Tremor being a big one, but healing tide, capacitor, grounding, etc are good utility.
3.) Earthquake is decently strong.
4.) The aoe burst is strong. Ascendance+chain lightning really hurts grouped teams.
5.) Offhealing when absolutely needed.

Let's see, I've been up to 1760 or so in RBG and I can tell you this much, if you're not Resto you won't be better than just another Lock/Mage/SPriest for the following reasons:

1. We have ZERO Silence Protection aside from Spiritwalkers Grace (Which is the Resto PvP Set and not mainlined to Ele as well)
2. Cannot Drop Totems WHILE Silenced/Stunned (Which is severely detrimental to our survivability + effectiveness.
3. Squishy as hell.
4. Marginal Defensive Cooldowns (Talented Astral Shift/Bulwark and Sham Rage)
5. Shaman are usually always the first to get targetted, or so in my experience.

I can say that our burst is pretty good, Ascend + PvP Trink + Stormlash is pretty potent, but once that's gone it's just mediocre (minus some awesome Echo/Mastery procs)

Let's see, I've been up to 1760 or so in RBG and I can tell you this much, if you're not Resto you won't be better than just another Lock/Mage/SPriest for the following reasons:

1. We have ZERO Silence Protection aside from Spiritwalkers Grace (Which is the Resto PvP Set and not mainlined to Ele as well)
2. Cannot Drop Totems WHILE Silenced/Stunned (Which is severely detrimental to our survivability + effectiveness.
3. Squishy as hell.
4. Marginal Defensive Cooldowns (Talented Astral Shift/Bulwark and Sham Rage)
5. Shaman are usually always the first to get targetted, or so in my experience.

I can say that our burst is pretty good, Ascend + PvP Trink + Stormlash is pretty potent, but once that's gone it's just mediocre (minus some awesome Echo/Mastery procs)

That's not much rating to go on IMO. Win like 12 games and ur at that rating. Locks are OP gods in RBG's so yeah. But you can definitely compete with mages and spriests. Your burst is insane and the sustained damage can be pretty high as well if you stay alive all the time. Good group utility like aoe freedom, aoe fear dispell, aoe knockback. In addition to that you have a ranged interrupt so if you set an enemy on focus you can ruin their day by shearing 24/7.

Just you wait! If the Retribution damage buff goes through they're gonna be tremendously overpowered and definitely decently viable in RBGs becuase they have tons of utility, all they really need is some sustained damage. But 15 % is WAY too OP.

Well my friend there's always hope...but your class is just a filler, say like a Ret Pala or an Spriest maybe a WW Monk etc they are good but other classes have more prio...

But you'll get in a grp eventually...socialize bro and ull be there in no time.

But if you really want to get into one fast, why not lead one? its not that hard and you'll find LOTS of peeps who are willing to join...you'll get experience at some point and eventually have a designated team ...check the below guide (Link) for RBG leading and shizzle

Ele Shamans are underestimated. They offer great burst, 5% spell haste and some utility. Eles are squishy, but that isn´t such a problem in RBG as it is in arena.

The best DD isn´t the guy who tops the dmg-scoreboard. The best DD is the one who scores the highest kill/dmg ratio. Ele does this job very well.
Just yesterday I lost a rnd RBG where some DD shouted at us healers because the opponent´s healers healed so much more while our dmg was so far ahead. I´d say: bad focus, bad cc, bad burst, bad DDs, probably bad TC.

Maybe you just need to find a guild who is doing rbg's or a fresh group searching for dps ( this would prob be low rated ). The truth is people rather have a boom or a lock instead of a shaman. I was lucky to find a guild who was starting fresh with rbg's and we just pushed 1900 rating +. But I feel sometimes that I could bring more to the group if I were a dk or boomkin.

Sure, there are some class A specs for RBG. Such as DK with Mass Grip, Boomkin with Vortex & Beam, Destro with Health Stones, Chaos Bolt and Shadow Burn, Mage with Ring of Frost & other snares and roots. But then there are still 2 dmg slots open.

Find a good boomkin friend, market yourselves together. Wicked knockbacks, hefty RNG burst, and double solar beams make it a pair that any good RBG leader would be happy to have, even if it means he has to forgo an extra Mage.

as a resto druid, I love elemental shamans. I get spiritwalker's grace, which is the best ability I get from symbiosis (comparable to leap of faith, but most of the time SG is better), and the elemental shaman gets a miniature solar beam.